Perovskite LED Paves Path for Perovskite Laser Diodes

Belgian research lab Imec has made a significant breakthrough in LED technology by creating a metal halide perovskite LED stack that emits 1,000 times more light than state-of-the-art OLEDs. This achievement has the potential to revolutionize various industries, including image projection, environmental sensing, and medical diagnostics.

Imec's perovskite-based LEDs, known as PeLEDs, have demonstrated low optical losses and the ability to operate at current densities that are tens of thousands of times higher than conventional OLEDs. The team achieved this by using a unique architecture of transport layers, transparent electrodes, and perovskite as the active material.

With the assistance of an external laser, the PeLED stack exhibited electrically-pumped amplified spontaneous emission, a crucial step towards the development of a perovskite injection laser. This breakthrough opens up possibilities for applications that require high-intensity coherent light.

The proof-of-concept device operated at 77K and achieved 40W/cm2 of LED-like emission at 3kA/cm2. When stimulated with external laser pulses, it exhibited amplified spontaneous emission above 9.1μJ/cm2. By synchronizing the external laser pulses with electrical pulses, the team was able to reduce the external laser energy while still achieving amplified spontaneous emission, indicating the successful replacement of some of the external laser energy with electron-injection.

The ultimate goal for the team is to achieve amplified spontaneous emission, or lasing threshold, through purely electrical pumping. While they still have a way to go, they have made significant progress by demonstrating a significant electrical contribution to the amplified spontaneous emission signal.

This breakthrough comes shortly after Pusan National University announced amplified spontaneous emission from a solution-processed perovskite. However, Imec's achievement is unique as it involves both electrical and optical stimulation, making it a crucial step towards the development of an all-electrical pumping laser component.